Pole bridges of this kind for batteries are required in order to connect all positive and negative electrodes amongst each other and to simultaneously provide the capability to perform an electrical connection outside of the battery box. For this purpose, a positive and also a negative pole bridge are being used, forming a positive and a negative terminal with their terminal.
Batteries are mostly used in land- and watercraft, wherein they are used for starting an engine, as an energy supply or energy source for an electric drive system. Depending on the application, these batteries are subject to considerable mechanical stress caused by the impacts of shocks. This can e.g. be the case when driving cross country, or due to external impacts. Such external impacts e.g. in military vehicles, in particular submarines, can also be the stresses caused by explosions, proximal to the vehicle or submarine. The shockwaves created can expose an automobile and also a submarine to short, but considerable impact acceleration. In submarines, this can also be caused e.g. by water bombs or similar, wherein not only loose equipment of a submarine, but also components mounted to the submarine, like e.g. batteries, are exposed to considerable shock impacts. This e.g. leads to the electrode plates and their pole bridges installed in battery boxes, performing a stroke of several centimeters, since the battery box is typically mounted to the submarine in a fixed manner. In an extreme case, this means that the electrode plates within the battery box are moved downwards, and also upwards, relative to the battery box, and thus also the pole bridges perform a vertical movement. For damping this vertical movement, it is known to provide thin elastic rubber disks between the pole bridges and the cell lid, in order to cushion the shock impact. Furthermore, solutions are known wherein hard and brittle materials are used, which fracture due to the applied pressure, thus allowing a compensation movement of the electrode plates. In this embodiment, it is disadvantageous that typically only a single shock effect can be absorbed, and in case of a reoccurrence, the electrode plates can perform a vertical movement within the battery box, which is not dampened, or where the damping effect is only very small. This typically leads to considerable damages to the cell container and the cell lid and typically of the electrode plates, so that the batteries are rendered useless.
DE 23 56 465 A1 teaches a damping system for electrode plates in a battery, which is achieved through an elastic support of the pole bridge in the cell lid. For this purpose, the shaft of the terminal is surrounded by an elastic element on both sides of the cell lid, wherein the two elastic elements on the outside and inside of the cell lid establish the force transfer between the cell lid and the pole bridge. This type of suspension, however, causes the cell lid to deform in the immediate proximity of the terminal shaft under a shock impact, or that the cylindrical damping elements deform under shock impact, so that multiple shock impacts cannot be safely absorbed.
Furthermore, it is provided in known solutions according to the state of the art for the damping elements to form a narrow collar around the terminal shafts, which is supported at the cell lid of the battery. In spite of the damping, the forces transferred by the damping element under shock impact are so high that the cell lid fractures in the portion of the damping elements.